New Delhi: A public hearing was held at Jantar Mantar challenging the
series of Patna High Court verdicts that acquitted all accused in
massacres by the Ranveer Sena.
The hearing was addressed by survivors and eyewitnesses of the
Bathani Tola, Laxmanpur Bathe and Nagari Bazaar massacres, and family
members of the victims. A delegation of the massacre survivors was
accompanied by eminent citizens and activists, including several
writers, intellectuals and journalists, over the past month.
Several survivors of the Laxmanpur Bathe and Nagari Bazaar massacres
spoke of their long struggle for justice, battling all the efforts to
terrorise them into silence.
Bathani Tola massacre survivor Naeemuddin Ansari, who lost 6 family
members in the massacre recalled that President KR Narayanan had in 1997
called the Bathe massacre a 'national shame.' "We hope President
Mukherjee too will raise his voice for the cause of justice against this
second national shame – the acquittal of all the accused. The High
Court refused to believe us, saying that we cannot be ‘survivors’, we
should all have been dead had there been a massacre! Now the very fact
that we are alive is being used to deny us justice,” he said.
Another survivor Oghraj said, “I have personally identified several
among those who led the assault in my village. And now the High Court
refuses to believe me, and says I am a liar! We were filled with terror
when the murderers were acquitted, fearing retaliations. But now we have
decided we just have to fight, we can’t turn back”.
The jury at the public hearing included Prof. Nandini Sundar of DU,
Profs. Sona Jharia Minz and YS Alone of JNU, Prof Nawal Kishor Choudhury
of Patna University, and JNUSU VP Anubhuti Agnes Bara, Chittaranjan
Singh, PUCL and others. Among those who addressed the gathering were
CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPRM General Secretary
Taramani Rai, and Atul Dighe of Lal Nishan Party (Leninist). The
proceedings were conducted by Revolutionary Youth Association General
Secretary Ravi Rai.
Terming the acquittals a 'massacre of justice', CPI(ML) GS Dipankar
Bhattacharya said the erstwhile Laloo-Rabri regime and the current
Nitish Kumar regime had betrayed the massacre victims alike, and
protected the perpetrators.
(Source:TwoCircle.net)
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